Sequoia India has fallen well short of the $920m it gathered for its fifth fund after holding a $695m final close for its successor.
The firm said it planned to “double down” on investments in early and growth stage companies in the technology, consumer and healthcare sectors across India and Southeast Asia (SEA).
A statement about the fundraise posted to the firm’s website made no mention of the significantly smaller fund size compared to Fund V.
Sequoia is also currently raising up to $8bn for its latest global investment vehicle, however, which is expected to deploy some of its capital in India and southeast Asia.
The firm has made more than 200 investments in India to date, backing a handful of FinTech startups among them.
Most recently, the firm took part in the $25m Series B round of P2P lending platform Funding Societies. The company connects SMEs in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia with retail and institutional investors.
Other FinTechs in its portfolio include card payments company CardUp, investment research platform Smartkarma and SME credit financer Capital Float.
Sequoia India said it also planned to double down on partnering early with businesses, to help transform them “from idea to IPO and beyond”.
The firm expanded out into southeast Asia in 2012, making investments in companies including Go-Jek, Tokopedia and Traveloka – which now rank among Indonesia’s largest unicorns – as well as regional market leaders like One Championship, Appier and Carousell.
Southeast Asia now accounts for between 20 and 30 per cent of Sequoia India’s investments, by value, and the firm said it expected that to continue in the near term.
Sequoia India also revealed that investment executive Abhay Pandey has left the firm to create a dedicated consumer fund – another staff exit in the wake of VT Bharadwaj and Gautam Mago leaving last year to form A91 Partners.
The firm said it had promoted former Facebook exec Abheek Anand to managing director to focus on investments in SE Asia, and promoted four VPs to principal roles.
Sequoia India’s statement about the fund close said, “As we look to the future, the menu of investment opportunities is unprecedented – from mobile internet to online brands, enterprise SaaS to AI, crypto to deep tech in healthcare, new age consumer brands and beyond.
“India and SEA, meanwhile, are at an inflection point, and we are witnessing incredible quality of new investment opportunities.
“We are excited to think about the potential of our companies over the next many years – this combined region is projected to have GDP of over $14tn in 2030 and will likely have over 1.5B billion mobile internet users by then.
“Many of the up and coming startups of today are going to be the category creators and leaders of tomorrow. We hope that Sequoia India’s new fund is a step forward in helping to unleash the potential of the region.”
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